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Veteran
Posts: 107
Location: scotland | Just started reading my 8th Straub book. I think he may be the most interesting of horror writers and I recommend trying him. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | I read and enjoyed(is enjoyed the right word for a horror book) several of his books - Lost Boy,Lost Girl and Ghost Story,and especially Mr X.I do like my serial killer chillers.lol.I dont know how much he actually contributed to The Talisman,written with Stephen King but that book seriously gave me the creeps.
I have read so many serial killer books,and dont know if they can really be classed as horror or just as crime fiction.Read Keith Ablow,Chris Carter,John Connolly,Thomas Harris,Mo Hayder,Val McDermid,Chris Mooney,early Alex Cross by James Patterson,Karin Slaughter,P J Tracey and many more.What can I say,I cant stand cozy mysteries,I prefer my crime bloody
Liked early Dean Koontz,to about the mid eighties,and have read quite a few Stephen King's,but why or why doesnt he get an editor.Far,far too long IMO.
Must look around for acouple of book toadd for this month's challenge,not sure what yet.
Edited by dustydigger 2012-09-29 3:55 PM
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Uber User
Posts: 263
Location: Gunnison, Colorado | I recently got Straub's novella, The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine, so maybe this month is the time to read it. I did read King early in his career, but abandoned him after Cujo, which made me wonder why I was continuing to put myself through such unpleasantness, but I understand he got better. I haven't read Straub, but have heard him interviewed on a couple of podcasts. It sounds like he's trying for more than the pure visceral horror, and I've been meaning to give him a try, so it's good to see the positive comments. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Scott,did you ever read King's nonfiction overview of horror in all sorts of genres,Danse Macabre? A fun if rambling and discursive discussion of his views on horror.In it he claims there are three descending levels in horror books.The first and finest is terror,the state of exquisite apprehension as we are on tenterhooks before anything has happened.Horror he sees as that frightening moment when the awful thing actually happens.The third level is revulsion,as we see the awful physical outcomes.As King famously put it
,''I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud.
Looks to me as if you were put off by the ''gross out'' !.About seven years ago I tried to read Needful Things.A mysterious shop opens and the customers buy things they really wanted,then go home and perpetrate the most ghastly things on friends and family.After two or three chapters I was so sickened I had to give up,and didnt touch him again till this year when I read his collaboration with Peter Straub,The Talisman,which thankfully stuck mostly to levels 1 and 2!
My own personal taste is for the good old fashioned writers,Poe,Lovecraft,Blackwood,Bierce,Machen..Not a gross out in sight,just stately lofty oldfashioned elegant prose.One modern day writer who gives me the same ''feel'' is Susan Hill.I thought The Woman in Black was very good,but many people in my book club were disappointed and enraged,very little grossout in sight! lol
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Veteran
Posts: 107
Location: scotland | I read Danse Macabre. Don't usually read non-fiction, not that interested in them, in fact I think I was reading a King short story collecton at the same time.
Iagree with parts of what he wrote. I've read many gross out type novels. Graham Masterton wrote a truly chilling opening to a serial killer novel. Richard Laymon's Beast House novels are of the same ilk.
I also struggled with Needful Things when I first read it. I was 17 at the time which may have been the reason. Read it about 10years after.
I mostly enjoy Kings novels with fantasy elements in. All Dark Tower especially Wizard and Glass, Dreamcatcher, Lisey's Story, Rose Madder. | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | I just cant bear Laymon.My daughter is a rabid fan,and hasntforgiven him yet for dying and thus not producing more books.Since I dont lean to the gross out type of book.I have made only sporadic attempts at his work.Not exactly subtle is he?My daughter says she likes him because he gets right to the nitty gritty from the start,no ''boring'' (her word,not mine!)extraneous detail like character development,just mindless,broad stroke violence as far as I can see.
I have read several Graham Masterton,a lot more civilised,and he has likeable heroes who struggle in hard circumstances.It seems to me Laymon prefers the baddies as his protagonists - and he often lets them triumph.I always want the good guys to prevail.
I have Dark Tower series pencilled in for next year,sounds much more my cup of tea! | |
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Uber User
Posts: 263
Location: Gunnison, Colorado | I haven't read Danse Macabre, but I understand King's writing about writing is highly thought of. And, yeah, it's the revulsion aspect I'd just as soon not subject myself to. The unique thing about horror to me is that it's so purely about creating an emotional affect, as opposed to genres that are defined by their subject matter and story tropes. I can appreciate it, but only occasionally. Thanks dusty and paul for the info; I look forward to learning a little more about modern horror throughout the month. @dusty: "My own personal taste is for the good old fashioned writers,Poe,Lovecraft,Blackwood,Bierce,Machen." I'm with you there. I've also enjoyed the old Gothic novels (Walpole, "Monk" Lewis, Shelley, etc...) | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Snap!.Well,I havent read any of the old Gothics except Frankenstein,but I already have Le Fanu's Uncle Silas,The Monk,Castle of Otranto,and possibly Mysteries of Udolpho pencilled in from the Guardian list for next year. | |
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Peter Straub